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welcome to this video on thought stopping this is another video in
the cognitive behavioral therapy nugget series I'm your host Dr Donnelly Snipes
sometimes our brain goes in multiple directions that we don't want and
some people call this monkey mind what we're going to talk about is one aspect
of taming that monkey mind stopping some of those intrusive and unwanted thoughts
thought stopping helps you redirect your brain maybe you're sitting there doing something at
work and your mind wanders to something you're worried about all right well in order to tame that
monkey mind you don't want to continue thinking about that thing you want to tell yourself no
I'm going to focus on what's going on in the present moment so how do you do do that well
first thing you do is exactly that tell yourself no I'm not going to think about that right now
replace the thought with something else you can replace it with a mantra you know maybe you're
worried about getting some test results back or you're worried about a loved one and your mind
keeps going there well tell yourself no I'm not going to think about that right now and then say
some sort of Mantra or prayer like you know the Serenity Prayer is my go-to grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know
the difference or you know a few Hail Marys whatever works for you in order to occupy your
mind so that that thought can come back and it can knock on the door but you're not letting it in
a mantra a prayer some people will pick up a book and say no I'm not going to think about
that right now I'm going to start reading this book so I can focus on that or sometimes you just
return your attention to whatever you're doing in the moment if you are working and you were just
you know typing away in an Excel spreadsheet and all of a sudden your mind went over there
bring it back and say no I'm not going to think about that right now I'm going to focus on what
I'm doing I find that sometimes it's helpful to talk out loud talk myself through it in order to
stay more grounded if my mind starts wandering like when I'm cooking I will just start kind of
narrating exactly what I'm doing when I'm doing it now that doesn't work perfectly if you're in
an office with a bunch of people but if you're at home if you're laying in bed if you're at the G
um well maybe not at the gym there are a lot of times you can narrate you know out loud and
that really helps keep you focused and grounded in the moment if that thought keeps coming back
ask yourself what's the benefit to ruminating on this thought what is the benefit for me to keep
worrying about this is worrying going to change it is worrying going to help anything and the
answer is 99 times out of 100 no worry doesn't do anything worry and anxiety are feelings you have
that are supposed to motivate you to do something not just sit there and nurture the feeling
which takes us to our next step once you decide that there's probably no benefit to ruminating
on it to worrying about it or stewing on it ask yourself is there anything I can do to address
this thought and improve this issue at this moment if you're waiting on test results or
worried about a loved one for example the answer is probably no it's just a matter
of you have to wait you have to be patient and that can be really agonizing at times I get that
however also recognizing that worrying is going to you know impair your sleep it's going to impair
your immunity it's going to you know have negative effects it's important to give yourself permission
to not have to continue to revisit that
some people find it helpful to write down their worries if they get it out if they get it out
on paper then they're not concerned that they're going to forget about it for some reason so write
it down and put it into your thought box some people will call it a god box some people will
call it a universe box whatever it is you take this worry this intrusive thought that you're
having you write it down and you give it you put it away you put it on a shelf and that's
actually physically giving you the experience of shelving that thought for a moment you can
come back to it whenever you want it's not going anywhere but you're shelving it for the moment
don't get discouraged it takes time to develop this skill especially if you are a person who does
ruminate a lot who does worry a lot start small if you have an intrusive thought you know try some of
these techniques and try to get to the point where you can stop having the thought for five minutes
and then once you can do that pretty easily then 10 minutes it sounds uh
like not not a big deal but it can be especially if it's something that you are really concerned
about it can be hard to even go five minutes so set yourself up for Success taking small steps
towards learning how to tame that monkey mind I can give you the other example
and it's not you know a monkey but if you've ever tried to train a dog to do the basic commands at
first if you can get your puppy to sit and just you know sit and hold it for about a second and a
half oh that's wonderful and then you want to get it to where the puppy will sit for three seconds
and then five seconds and then eventually you want the puppy to be able and willing to sit until it
comes when it's called that's exactly what we want to do when we tame our monkey mind we want
to get to the point where we can prevent it from getting up and jumping into our brain right away
I hope this skill ends up being helpful for you it certainly helps a lot of people reduce their
distress and improve their productivity once they get the hang of it but be patient with yourself